


Curiosity

by ioanite



Category: Alice in Wonderland (1951), Disney Animated Fandoms
Genre: Community: disney_kink, F/M, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-06
Updated: 2014-01-06
Packaged: 2018-01-07 17:49:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1122662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ioanite/pseuds/ioanite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Following your owner down a rabbit hole is bound to lead to trouble. But meeting a pink and purple cat who can disappear? That falls under the category of "Interesting" trouble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Curiosity

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt: "Pair: Cheshire Cat/Dinah
> 
> Prompt: Unbeknownst to Alice, Dinah follows her down the rabbit hole. In Wonderland, Dinah gets a voice and as she searches for Alice, she runs into the Cheshire cat. Raised in an atmosphere of wealth and prestige, where upturned noses and dignified meows are standard, she's never met a feline quite like him."
> 
> Also, Cheshire here turned out to be a strange mix of Animated Cheshire and Stephen Fry Cheshire. I just hope he comes across as in-character.

“Goodbye, Dinah! Goodbye!”

Dinah stared in horror as her owner tumbled down the hole. What would big sister say? Would she ever come back? And who was going to feed her and brush her and make sure her ribbon was on straight? She put her paws on the tree trunk and mewed loudly, hoping to draw someone’s attention. When that didn’t work, she tried yowling. Still nothing. She didn’t dare run off, in case she mixed up this tree with some other tree. But that just left one other option, and that one was absolutely distasteful. Why, she could muss her fur!

Dinah ran around the tree a few times, looking for another opening, or perhaps a glimpse that Alice had stopped her fall. But there was nothing. Dinah ruffled her fur in irritation. In the long run, she consoled herself, a bit of dirty fur could be licked off. Not having someone at her beck and call was much harder to take.

She looked down the hole, which was so deep and dark that even her cat eyes couldn’t see to the bottom. She closed her eyes, and with a nervous lick of her whiskers, stepped out into the blackness.

The initial rush of air was terrifying, and Dinah remembered to do what her mother had told her, twisting her body so that she pointed feet downwards. Then, to her slight surprise, her fur poofed out, slowing her fall. She gave a startled squeak, and cracked an eye open. Yes, she was definitely falling slowly. Even stranger, she was surrounded by clocks. Their pendulums were moving, but she couldn’t hear anything. What sort of rabbit hole _was_ this?

 Dinah soon had bigger problems to contend with. The bottom was finally coming into view, and…oh, heavens! It was full of water! She started flailing her paws, trying to find a purchase, but to no avail. She plunged straight into the water, yowling her indignation the whole way. Whatever this pool or lake was, it had its own current, and she found herself being carried along towards an archway. It looked like it had once held a door, but the battering of the waves had knocked it off its hinges. Dinah paddled desperately to keep her head above water, hoping that wherever this led, there was land to be found.

The waves tossed her about, sometimes shooting her straight up into the air, sometimes knocking her forward or pulling her back. The only comfort she could find in all this was that the water was apparently very thin; despite her frantic paddling, she didn’t feel overly tired. Then, as she was tossed upwards yet again, she saw something yellow and black up ahead. A beach! She’d seen pictures of them in Alice’s books. When she hit the water again, she paddled towards it with renewed vigor.

She landed upon the shore in an undignified heap, but was too happy to be on dry land to care. She quickly ran a ways up the beach to get away from the waves, and shook herself to get rid of the water drops. Only then did she stop to take a look at her surroundings…at which point she blinked in surprise. There were a variety of small birds and fish running around a rock right at the edge of the beach, so that every thirty seconds a wave washed over them. Three thoughts ran simultaneously through Dinah’s head. First, that they were fools for running so close to the waves. Secondly, that Alice was not among them. And thirdly, all of them looked like easy pickings. Dinah crouched down and started padding up to them.

She was just close enough to reach out and snag a passing fish when a jolly voice called down to her. “I say! What are you doing there? That’s no way to dry yourself off!”

Dinah jumped and looked up. Standing on the rock was a strange looking bird, a bit larger than his fellows. Out of instinct, she arched her back to growl at him for disturbing her, but was shocked when instead of her usual growl, her thoughts came out of her head, fully articulated. “You ruffian! You’ve ruined a perfectly good dinner opportunity!” She clapped a paw over her mouth. What had just happened?

The bird looked at her bemusedly. “Dinner? It’s not time for that yet! We’ll finish our little run, then go off for some tea. Why don’t you join us? We should be finished quite soon.”

Dinah backed away slowly, then turned and headed off in the opposite direction at a run. It was only when she felt the familiar comfort of grass beneath her feet that she stopped to catch her breath and take stock of the situation. Obviously, the hole had been a gateway to some fairy-tale world, where animals talked and moved like humans. Since she’d come into the world, she now could speak too. She closed her eyes, thought of the first word she could—“hello”—and opened her mouth. “Hello.” came out, nice and easy. Well then. That was _one_ advantage over the normal world.

Now then, where could Alice have gotten to? As Dinah thought about it, things just weren’t adding up. That archway was too small for Alice to get through, but she’d been nowhere in sight. Fairy magic, perhaps, but then where was she? Dinah sat and licked the dampness out of her fur, trying to gather her wits and formulate a plan. The answer was simple. She would continue to walk until she ran into another creature, and she would simply ask them if they had seen a little blonde girl run by. It wasn’t much of a plan, but it would have to do. She gave herself one last lick for luck, and then started on her way.

She seemed to be in some sort of forest, which was dark but didn’t feel overly threatening. But although she kept her ears at full alert, she couldn’t hear any voices. Maybe once she was out of the forest…?

“Mmmwell then, what have we here?” said a voice above her. Dinah looked up immediately, her eyes widening. Sprawled out on a branch was a cat. But he was like no cat _she’d_ ever seen. His fur was pink and purple, and he was grinning from ear to ear, much like the humans did when they were excited. Still, he was one of her kind, and she addressed him eagerly. “Pardon me, but have you seen a blonde girl around here? She’s wearing a blue dress and white apron.”

He cocked his head to look at her. Or rather, his head rotated downwards until his neck was a corkscrew. Dinah was vaguely repulsed. “Well? Have you or not?”

“I have yet to run into such a strange creature as you describe,” the cat said, his head spinning back into place as he started examining his claws, “But I _have_ heard rumors from others that an unusual being called an Alice is appearing all over Wonderland. However, I heard from my acquaintance the Dodo that he had a strange encounter with a being like myself, so naturally I followed that lead up first. Tell me, do you grin?”

“No,” Dinah said curtly, before softening her tone, “Alice is the girl I’m looking for. She’s my owner, my meal-giver. Please, can you at least give me a general direction where to find her?”

“Oh, there’s time for that yet,” the cat said, stretching out on the branch, “Right now, I find _you_ much more interesting. What do you call yourself?”

Dinah supposed she should go through the common courtesies. “Dinah,” she said, inclining her head in an approximation of a human bow, “And you are…?”

“Oh, I don’t have any special name,” the cat said idly, “But I’m a Cheshire Cat, so most people around here just call me Cheshire.”

“A Cheshire Cat?” Dinah repeated skeptically. She would never pretend that she knew all the breeds of cat, but the “Cheshire” breed sounded so made up that she couldn’t help but think he was making something up to impress her. Then again, no cat she knew had pink and purple fur. “Are there many like you?” she asked at last.

Cheshire grinned even wider. “ _No one’s_ like me.”

“Oh? Then I suppose you sprang fully-formed from the ether.” Dinah smirked to herself; this ability to speak was rather fun once you learned how to craft sarcastic remarks. Cheshire seemed to appreciate her jibe too, since his grin somehow got wider still. Then, to Dinah’s utter shock, he vanished from sight, his mouth the only thing visible. “Some people would argue that, yes.” the mouth said, matter-of-factly.

“What…but…HOW??” Dinah spluttered.

“I’m not sure where you come from, Dinah, but you may have noticed, things don’t always make sense around here,” Cheshire said, the pink stripes of his tail reappearing to waggle at her, “I was just blessed with a particularly charming set of nonsense.”

“And where is ‘here’, exactly?” Dinah said, feeling slightly dizzy now.

“Oh, I thought I’d mentioned it. It’s called Wonderland,” Cheshire answered, finally rematerializing on the branch, “It’s a beautiful place if you take the time to look.”

Dinah shook her head. She couldn’t afford to get distracted. Alice could be anywhere, and Dinah didn’t want to widen the distance between them. “I’m sure it is,” she said to Cheshire, “And perhaps I can take a tour of it later, once I’ve tracked down Alice and made sure she’s all right. Can you suggest a place to look for her?”

Cheshire blinked at her slowly. Then he leapt surprisingly gracefully from the branch and landed beside her. “I suppose we could pay a visit to the Hatter and the Hare. They’re quite welcome to newcomers. I can show you the way.”

“Thank you,” Dinah said, bowing her head gracefully, “I’m glad to see that you’re a gentleman.”

Cheshire chuckled a little. “Gentleman? How absurd. I’m just a Cheshire Cat. Come along, this way.”

 He trotted ahead of her, bouncing on the pads of his feet in such a way that it seemed like he was hovering most of the time. She followed, carefully avoiding muddy patches so as not to dirty her fur any more than necessary. Cheshire must have noticed, because she heard him give a half-laugh. “Come come, don’t be afraid to get dirty. No one’s going to mind, least of all the Hatter. And at worse, you can clean yourself up once we get out of the forest.”

Dinah huffed. “Forgive me if I want to limit how dirty I get. It’s easy for you, going transparent, but I can’t be so lucky.”

Cheshire stopped at that and turned to look at her. “Oh, now, this won’t do at all.”

“I beg your pardon?” Dinah bristled. Cheshire slid up to her, raising his eyebrows (which literally lifted off his head and hovered there for thirty seconds). “You, pretty miss, need to take things less seriously. Life is SO much better when you throw in a little absurdity.”

“Oh, forgive me for worrying about the person who looks after me!” Dinah snapped, “I would say that’s a touch more important than loosening up!”

Cheshire walked around her, tail brushing against her legs and sliding over her side. She quivered with indignation, but she couldn’t help but notice that her heart did an odd sort of somersault at the same time. Even though she gave no outward sign of this, Cheshire must have noticed _something_ , because that maddening grin of his got even wider. “Oh, perhaps it _is_ important. But just how many things _have_ to be important? I personally assign importance to things, and don’t overly worry about things that I classify as ‘average’. In other words, Dinah, perhaps you should teach yourself to relax.”

Dinah wanted to snap that worrying if she’d ever see Alice again could certainly classify as “important”, but his tail started ghosting along her back, and the words died in her throat. “Y-you…” she started, unsure how she intended to end that sentence. She turned to look at him and discovered that he had gone completely invisible this time, grin and all. At that revelation, it suddenly felt like all of her fur had gone extra-sensitive, prickling in preparation for _anything_ to touch her. She heard Cheshire chuckle and purr in her ear. “Now you’re starting to relax. Good.”

A paw brushed against her leg, and she quivered. “I take it back,” she murmured, “You’re not a gentleman, you’re a scoundrel.”

“Why thank you,” Cheshire said, sounding genuinely flattered, “I try my best, you know. Now, just close your eyes for a minute.”

“Why bother?” she answered, her old sarcasm returning, “I can’t see you anyway.”

“Oh, _very_ good,” Cheshire purred, “You’re learning faster than I expected.”

She couldn’t help but smile. Maddening as he could be, he was so…fresh. The few cats she knew from home liked to gush on about how well they were treated by their owners and hated to get a bit of fur out of place. But Cheshire didn’t care for any of that. It seemed like all he wanted was to be entertained. This was novel to her, and not entirely unpleasant.

Something rough and damp touched her shoulder. Dinah arched her spine, eyes closing involuntarily as Cheshire’s tongue traveled over her back. Even his tongue felt different from the way her mother or siblings licked her, something electrifying and off-kilter. She made a noise low in her throat, and Cheshire responded with a half-laugh that rumbled against her fur and heightened the sensations. “I think we can dispose of this, don’t you?”

Then his teeth were gently catching at her ribbon, pulling it undone and off her neck with a slowness that was both maddening and exciting. “Don’t you like it?” she asked, a little disappointed; she’d always thought she looked good with a little bow on her neck.

“Oh, it’s pretty. But we want you to be comfortable and loose, and not so…uptight.”

Then his tongue was on her neck, fluffing out the fur mashed flat by the ribbon. She started purring, and he purred right along with her. His paws and tail seemed to be all over her body, which reminded her of how unnaturally flexible he was. Her body flicked from touch to touch, her claws flicking in and out.

She wasn’t sure how long they kept that up, or even indeed where they were at that point, but eventually, Cheshire stepped away from her, and when she opened her eyes, he was visible again, picking up her ribbon from the ground. “It’s a start.” he said, draping it loosely over her neck.

Dinah was dazed, and it took her a moment to find her voice. “Should we…continue on?”

Cheshire grinned, a gleam in his eyes. “Iiii think it might be best if you didn’t. Some of the locals can be rather unfriendly, and I’d hate for you to get lost, or worse, lose your head. And I can’t look out for you all the time.”

“But what about Alice?”

Cheshire gave her an affectionate bump with his head. “I’ll track her down. You can count on me.”

“And what shall I do? Just stay here?”

“Follow me.”

He led her through the trees until they came across one tree that looked exactly the same as all the other trees. Cheshire floated up to the tree and pulled down a branch. A small hole just big enough for Dinah appeared. “Go through that and you’ll find yourself where you want to be. It never interested me much myself; everything just seemed so _serious._ Just wait there a little while and I’ll have this Alice back to you.”

“Thank you, Cheshire,” she said, inclining her head again, “For looking for Alice, for leading me home…” she paused for a fraction of a second before she concluded, “And for the lesson.”

He just smiled down at her. She was about to go through the tunnel when she heard his voice, and it was impossible to tell where it was coming from, which somehow made the words that much more thrilling. “If you ever want another lesson…tap the gnarled root nearest the exit and the doorway will open again.”

She didn’t answer him, focusing on crawling up through the narrow passageway. Now she really _would_ have to clean out her fur, but the dim light ahead of her made her forget that temporarily and push forward. Five minutes or so of climbing, and she wriggled out into the sunlight. She saw the field of daisies she and Alice had been playing in earlier, and was sure that she was safely home. To test it, she tried to say “hello,” again, and only a mew escaped.

Dinah wasn’t sure where Alice would emerge, or how long it would take to get her back, so she decided to wait by the tree where Alice first fell. She had barely taken two steps when she paused and looked back at her tree, eyes lingering a moment on the gnarled root. Then she stepped back to it, popping out her claws, and carefully picked at the bark just enough to leave a lighter colored ‘W’ visible in the wood. Dinah purred in satisfaction for a moment before retracing her steps to the other tree.

She’d had enough time to clean the dirt from her fur, sharpen her claws, and replay her interactions with Cheshire _twice_ before Alice emerged, looking dazed but otherwise perfectly fine. Her clothes didn’t even have a speck of dirt on them. Dinah bounded up to her and meowed. Alice patted her vaguely and retied the pink ribbon around Dinah’s neck. “Goodness, what a strange experience,” she said, sitting down and leaning against the tree, “I need a minute to sort it all out.” Dinah crawled into her lap and curled up, purring reassuringly. She wasn’t sure how long it was, or who did it first, but the two of them eventually fell asleep, woken up ten minutes later by big sister.

Alice apparently took her whole experience for a dream, albeit an extremely detailed one that she regaled Dinah with that afternoon and evening. After a proper night’s sleep, she continued on with her life as though nothing had happened. Dinah tried to do the same, but every time she met with one of the neighbor cats, with their obsession with breeding and lineage and high-quality food, all she could think of was a set of pink stripes waving at her. Finally, two weeks after the strange adventure, she tentatively made her way back to the field of daisies, and then wandered from tree to tree until she saw the ‘W’. She nudged the root with her nose, and a hole appeared with a faint creak. Her heart seemed to beat faster with every step she took, and her pace quickened until she nearly broke into a run.

When she finally emerged into the slightly murky forest of Wonderland, she took a deep breath and called out “Cheshire? Are you there?”

There was a chuckle up above her, and even though there was no one there, Dinah’s tail rose up in excitement. “What a pretty ribbon you’re wearing today, Dinah,” Cheshire said, slowly emerging on a nearby tree branch, “Purple suits you.”

“I’m glad you like it,” Dinah said, putting her paws on the tree to look up at him, “I chose it specially for today.”

Cheshire looked flattered and that and floated down beside her. “Well then, Dinah, ready for another lesson in relaxation?”

***

Some time later, Dinah surprised and delighted Alice and her family by producing a litter of three kittens. One was red like her, and two were bearing an unusual shade of black. The all-black one got some attention, but the red and black striped-one was regularly remarked on by anyone who saw him. “What a beautiful color,” they would say, “I swear, in the sunlight it looks almost purple.”

(They had no idea that there were three other kittens, bearing that same black shade along with a distinctly unnatural shade of pink, that were moving along the trees in a land underneath a gnarled root, slowly learning how to disappear from view under the patient tutelage of their proud papa. The other three got occasional lessons whenever Dinah found time to sneak away with them.)

Her kittens were a handful, but she loved them all the same, even when they managed to float up somewhere beyond her reach, or hide so well that she wasn’t sure if they were underneath the floorboards or had turned invisible. They also seemed to have abilities that even their father couldn’t have imagined, as was evidenced by the day Dinah looked up from cleaning her other two kittens to see Alice disappearing through a mirror, the striped kitten looking inordinately pleased with himself. “She’ll come back,” he assured her when she glared at him, “She wanted something to do with herself, so I gave her something.” Dinah rolled her eyes, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, and started licking him more forcefully than usual. Until Alice got back, she’d be keeping him in her sight to make sure he wasn’t bending the truth.


End file.
